Chapter 78
Agnes only stopped her wheelchair when her fingertips, which had been rolling the wheels, grew numb.
When she regained her senses, she had already been pushed deep into the midst of the crowds.
The city was vibrating with a strange excitement as if in anticipation of the fireworks.
Eve festival flags fluttered above her head, and colorful lanterns hung swaying at the street corners.
The sweet scent of fruit sold by merchants and the smell of melted sugar floated through the air.
However, even as Agnes looked at all these sights, she felt nothing.
The wind brushing her nape, the slight contact of passersby’s clothes, the laughter, and the music.
All sounds and sensations felt distant and blurred, as if she were submerged underwater.
‘I wasn’t even of trivial significance to Lionel Edmund Valheim.’
Starting with that thought, the moments she had spent with Lionel Edmund Valheim surged before her eyes.
Lionel Edmund Valheim’s words that he would believe in her were merely like charity handed out to soothe the situation at the time, like pressing a candy into the hand of a throwing a tantrum child.
Nevertheless, she had foolishly been so happy she didn’t know what to do, thinking he believed in her.
The warm kisses he gave, and the softly echoing melody of the piano.
She realized poignantly only now that they were nothing more than hollow pranks.
A moment’s hope turned into an insult, gouging her heart.
In addition to that, another voice, unlike Lionel Edmund Valheim’s, which was slightly high yet cracked like scraping metal, came to mind.
“Be careful if you don’t want to be entangled with the daughter of a lowly merchant and dragged down to the bottom together.”
“Because of me, Lionel Edmund Valheim might be dragged down to the bottom……”
Since she hadn’t heard from the beginning, she did not know what it was about her that would push Lionel Edmund Valheim into a quagmire.
But what was the point of questioning that?
Her origin, her uncomfortable legs, her family who went mad for money and joined hands with the enemy.
Even just picking out anything that composed her at random, they could all become weaknesses for Lionel Edmund Valheim.
Looking at it this way, was she not truly useless.
She no longer had any information to give Lionel Edmund Valheim. She was of no help.
As if that weren’t enough, they say that just by her breathing, she could drag Lionel Edmund Valheim down to the bottom.
If so, was there any meaning for her to remain by Lionel Edmund Valheim’s side?
Agnes stared blankly at the light bulbs decorating the roadside tree right in front of her.
The bulb was flickering, flickering as if it were about to go out soon.
She had dreamed a dream beyond her station for a moment.
A dream of becoming happy with the person she loved.
*Flick—.*
With the sound of a fuse blowing, the light of the bulb that had been barely holding on went out completely.
Agnes’s lips moved vacantly as she stared at the tree branch stained with darkness.
“……Perhaps it would be better if I disappeared.”
Wouldn’t that be much more beneficial for everyone.
A bulb that had lost its light and gone out.
Agnes felt that it was just like her own appearance.
It was then.
“Kyaaa!”
A young girl running excitedly while holding a bouquet of paper flowers tumbled right in front of Agnes’s wheelchair.
The bouquet dropped from the child’s hand scattered on the street, and the colored paper fluttered in the wind.
A few of those flowers fluttered down and settled on Agnes’s lap.
Agnes stared blankly at the scene for a while and then carefully leaned forward.
Then she picked up the paper flowers that had fallen on her lap and handed them to the child.
“Are you alright?”
It was the moment she asked that.
A hand that suddenly popped out lifted the child right up.
“Are you hurt anywhere? I told you not to run!”
The woman who appeared to be the child’s older sister belatedly discovered Agnes and was startled.
“A, Lady Agnes?”
Agnes slowly raised her head.
A simple face with freckles scattered across the bridge of her nose came into view.
“……Jessie?”
“What are you doing here? Ah! Did you come out to see the Eve festival? I, I came out to see it with my younger sister……”
Jessie babbled incoherently as if flustered.
Behind such a Jessie, the light bulb she thought had gone out completely flickered back on with a *pop*.
Agnes looked at that light with blurred eyes and then wore an extremely faint expression that was hard to even call a smile.
“It’s been a while, Jessie. I thought I would never see you again because you quit without a word, but we meet like this.”
“I’m sorry for leaving without a greeting. I mean, I, well……”
Jessie hesitated, unable to meet her gaze properly.
Beside her, Jessie’s younger sister made a crying face while holding the crumpled paper flowers.
“Sister, the flowers are all ruined, *sob*.”
Agnes looked at the child for a moment, then bought a new bouquet of paper flowers from a merchant passing by and held it out to the child.
“Here, take it.”
“Is this for me?”
The child, who was looking at Jessie as if wondering if it was okay to take it, hugged the bouquet tightly in her arms and smiled brightly.
“Thank you!”
At the younger sister’s bursting laughter, Jessie was startled and waved her hands.
“Lady Agnes, you don’t have to do this!”
“It’s because I want to give it.”
Agnes shook her head gently.
“Thank you for being kind to me while you were at the mansion, Jessie.”
At that one sentence, Jessie’s face froze.
It was because she knew better than anyone else that she did not deserve to hear such words.
However, Agnes’s expression was sincere.
At that pure face, unmixed with even a hint of resentment or suspicion, Jessie felt a tight sensation in her throat.
“I…… I……”
Jessie, who was only grasping the air not knowing what to say, finally bowed as if fleeing.
“Thank you. Th, then we’ll be going first.”
Clutching her aching conscience, Jessie quickened her steps.
However, after not going far, Jessie stopped her steps.
‘This won’t do. I can’t keep pretending not to know like this.’
She had to at least apologize.
For her behavior of merely being a bystander.
And she had to warn her how dangerous a person Nora was.
If not, she would have to live with this shameful feeling for the rest of her life.
But the moment Jessie finished her resolve and was about to turn around,
A small hand pulled her sleeve.
“Sister!”
“Why?”
When Jessie looked back, her younger sister pointed with her finger in the direction where Agnes was.
“The sister who just gave the flowers. Some strange men are following her.”
Jessie hurriedly looked toward where her sister pointed.
Agnes was looking at the decorated tree for a moment with a face full of thoughts, then was moving her wheelchair toward the square.
And people wearing pitch-black hoods were following such an Agnes.
“……What is……?”
While tightly holding her sister’s hand, Jessie tried to return toward Agnes urgently, pushing through the people.
However, it was not easy to move forward as she was jostled by people here and there.
“Let me pass for a moment!”
When Jessie, who had been trapped and unable to move among large people who seemed at least a head taller, finally escaped, Agnes had already disappeared from her sight.
The suspicious men who were following her as well.
Jessie’s face turned deathly pale.
“Oh my God, no……”
That thin cry was scattered into pieces within the noise of the Eve festival.
***
Agnes was left alone in front of the tree where Jessie had departed.
The child’s laughter that tickled her ears until a moment ago and the light of the bulb that turned back on all felt as if they were from a long time ago.
A long shadow stretched at the feet of the vacantly standing Agnes.
Among the crowd bustling with the Eve festival, two men were walking toward Agnes, leaving a heavy aura.
At first, she thought they were just passersby.
However, whenever they moved, a daisy pattern was glimpsed under their hoods.
“……Rebelt.”
Agnes gasped, taking a breath.
Her body, feeling the threat, instinctively gripped the wheels.
To get away from Rebelt, Agnes began to move her wheelchair urgently.
However, the speed of the wheelchair slowed down as it kept getting caught on the uneven ground.
At this rate, she would be caught.
While struggling to remove a stone caught in the wheel, a fundamental question suddenly occurred to Agnes.
‘……Even if I desperately escape like this and return to the Duke’s residence, who would welcome me?’
They wouldn’t.
Because anyway, she was an existence that could be discarded whenever Lionel Edmund Valheim made up his mind.
That realization struck her head violently.
A cold resignation crawled up slowly from deep within her body.
‘Yes…… perhaps it would be better if it turned out like this.’
She did not want to be abandoned.
The last remaining greed sadly knocked on her chest.
Rather than waiting to be abandoned without knowing when that would be, she felt it would hurt less to just disappear like this.
Agnes looked straight at the hand reaching out to her.
And she slowly released the strength from her hands that were gripping the wheels.
Now, truly……,
It was time to wake up from the dream.
☆▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎☆
